Testimony by the Air Transport Safety Bureau's investigator for the Lockhart River Metroliner crash has heard that the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) allowed some real cowboy operations at the airline to proceed undetected and unfettered. The captain of the twin-engined Fairchild Metroliner II had a reputation of intimidating his first officers and in not accepting well-intended criticism from them. On 07 May 2005 he flew a GPS approach towards Lockhart River at around twice the standard speed and through broken and scattered cloud. The flight hit South Pap mountain well below the authorised non-precision approach slope, killing all 15 persons on board. It's not known why there was no response to a Ground Proximity Warning System alert because the cockpit voice recorder had failed many months previous. The captain was known to have had a social engagement back in Cairns and was rushing to make it. The ATSB has contended that the CASA had failed to identify serious deficiencies in the safety management of Transair, the operators of the flight, and allowed a poor safety culture at the airline to go unchecked. The aircraft that crashed was also not certified to be undertaking the operation that it was being used for. The ATSB noted that CASA had failed to recognize management failures at Transair, nor the fact the airline had poor procedures and non-existent training - with even co-pilot Tim Downs forced to train himself by reading books. It was also the case that Transair began flying the Cairns-Bamaga route without proper accreditation and used planes that had not been properly maintained - serious breaches that CASA's superficial audits failed to notice. The former CEO of the airline has thus far not responded to requests that he should return to Australia, from Papua Niu Gini, to appear at the inquest. The inquest is ongoing.
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